Saugeen Shores CrossFit

If you want to be in the best shape of your life and become a Topp Performing fitness monster, CrossFit is the answer. Topp Performance is proud to be an official CrossFit associate, offering authorized training to any and all who feel they can hack it!

A mix of weight, body weight and cardio training like nothing else, CrossFit pushes your body to the limit and beyond. You will be tired. You will hurt. You will cry for your mommy! You will also become a fitness god or goddess, look fantastic and feel bulletproof!

Exceed Your Goals!

Whether you want to lose weight, build incredible muscle tone or boost your endurance to godlike levels, Saugeen Shores has the workout you need. Never done it before? No problem. We'll set you up with a killer workout that will push you to limits you didn't think you could achieve. An experienced CrossFitter but looking for a better environment.? We can offer that too with professional certified trainers and people just like you to share the journey with.

Join us today and experience what CrossFit can do for your body, your mind and your health.

A Scalable, Start-anywhere Workout

While this page focuses a lot on the extreme fitness potential of CrossFit, the fact is that CrossFit is scalable and can provide exceptional health and fitness benefits to people of all ages and fitness levels. If you’ve never worked out before, you’ll start with a program that you can handle and that will gradually increase in intensity over time as your body gets stronger. Even if you’re 80, CrossFit can be for you. The CF workout will simply be scaled to what your body can handle.

CrossFit: Becoming a Fitness Legend

You don’t just want to get fit. You want to get über fit. CrossFit is the answer. With the exception of martial arts training, no form of exercise that we are aware of can equal the potential to improve muscle tone, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness. Committing yourself to regular CrossFit training will make you a fitness god or goddess. You’ll feel like you’re bulletproof and able to leap tall buildings. But what is CrossFit exactly? How does it differ from other kinds of training and why does it work so well? If you’re new to CF, perhaps considering trying it out, this article is for you.

CrossFit is a scalable workout that can take you from a complete beginner to being in exceptional physical condition, regardless of your age or starting point.

Who It’s For

CrossFit can be for anybody, but it isn’t for everybody. Most types of people will benefit greatly from CF, but there a few types who should probably try something else. Here’s a quick breakdown.

Beginners, fitness fanatics, former athletes and people who enjoy joining a community of like-minded individuals can all do very well in CrossFit. The scalable nature of CF workouts means your starting fitness level is irrelevant, but that same scalable nature can lead to extreme levels of fitness. Former athletes often find the challenges very similar to the intense training they endured when competing and those who like to be part of a community will find the camaraderie of CF goes well beyond many other types of training.

Who It’s Not For

There are a few types of people who probably won’t like CF, despite the effectiveness of the workouts. Sport-specific athletes will be better served focusing on their specialty. For example, a powerlifter will definitely not get the training they need from CF to do better in lifting competitions. In addition, some people are just lone wolf types – they prefer to work out alone. CF is a community where people are often doing a training session together. If group participation just isn’t your thing, you’re likely best to stick to solo training methods.

If you're a lone wolf type then CF probably isn't for you (although we think you should try it anyway). The CrossFit community is a supportive group of like-minded individuals committed to seeing that everyone achieves their goals.

The CrossFit WOD

While many gyms will run their own CF workout schedule, and even help you develop one that’s customized for you, the official CrossFit.com site publishes a Workout of the Day (WOD). If you’re interested in seeing a range of CF workouts, check out them out here.

At Topp Performance, we create customized CrossFit training programs designed to help our clients get the greatest possible benefit from their CF experience.

What CrossFit Will (and Won’t) Do For You

CrossFit workouts are designed to shock your body by changing up what you do, not every few months as with many ‘traditional’ training programs, but Every. Single. Day. The benefit of this is that muscle groups are never ignored or passed over for more than a few days before being hit again, and usually in a different way than the last time you worked that group. The result is a body that is conditioned to handle literally anything! Whether your next non-CF activity is cross-country skiing, volleyball, a baseball tournament, rugby, mountain climbing, or whatever, you’ll be able to excel at it and not even be sore the next day.

By combining strength training exercises with a very strong cardio component where you are encouraged to complete the workout within a certain time limit without sacrificing good form, CrossFit results in a body that is über toned, highly resilient and with the cardio power to run up mountains – in some cases literally!

What It Won’t Do

If you’re wanting to add muscle mass, CrossFit alone will work at cross purposes to that goal. Among a host of other benefits, CF workouts are designed to increase strength – but by increasing the power of the muscle mass you already have, not by adding more.

If you want to add muscle mass you can still benefit greatly from CF training, but you’ll need to add a more traditional bodybuilding workout to your routine and you’ll also need to follow a bodybuilding diet. CF can greatly increase your cardio fitness and muscle tone, resulting in being able to attack those heavy weights with greater intensity, resulting in more pump. And pump, combined with diet, is the secret to successful bodybuilding, so we’re definitely not telling you to avoid CF if you want to build muscle. Just be aware that CF alone won’t do that for you.

One Caveat

CrossFit works as well as it does for two primary reasons. The first is that the workout changes every day. This means your body never gets to settle in to a ‘routine’ and must always be adapting by getting stronger and more resilient. The second reason is intensity. Many CF’ers push themselves to the point of almost puking after a workout. This isn’t necessarily bad. How hard you’ll push yourself is a personal thing, largely dependent upon your personality. But that same intensity comes with a risk.

You must always remain very conscious of form when doing a CF workout, as the speed with which you are training, combined with poor form, can easily result in injury. Do squats slowly with 300 pounds and perfect form and the risk of injury is very minimal. Do those same squats with 120 pounds quickly and with poor form and it’s a back injury just waiting to happen.

Unless you're very experienced at training yourself, you should start your CrossFit journey with a trainer. The fast pace and high repetitions can easily lead to injury if exercises are done incorrectly.

CF focuses on body weight exercises and non-traditional equipment such as kettle bells, although it does also make use of barbells. This leads some people who take up CrossFit to transition to bodybuilding (or what might better be referred to as body-sculpting). There are a host of benefits to adding more lean muscle mass to your body, regardless of your gender.

CrossFit: The Gateway Workout

An oft overlooked benefit of CrossFit is that it has introduced tens of thousands of people to resistance training. Some men, but especially many women, who would never have considered hitting the weights discover the many benefits of bodybuilding through CF. The term ‘bodybuilding’ sometimes is seen as negative by people who associate it with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and other similar gigantic slabs of muscular hypertrophy. Most people have no interest in looking like that, but taking up bodybuilding doesn’t mean that you’ll end up needing to have your clothes custom made because nothing off the rack will fit over your bulging biceps.

A better term than bodybuilding might be body-sculpting. This is the conscious effort to increase the size and strength of certain muscle groups to improve strength, muscle tone, and definition while literally sculpting the body into a more desirable shape. There are many benefits to bodybuilding that go well beyond the merely visual. More muscle mass means a higher Resting Metabolic Rate, which makes it easier to stay lean. In addition, a higher ratio of muscle to fat results in a body that is more resistant to injury and disease.

Should You Take Up CrossFit?

We can’t really answer that question for you. It depends upon your goals and your personality. What we can say, without any reservation, is that nothing, save perhaps martial arts, will make you fitter, faster, and tougher. At Topp Performance we have certified CrossFit trainers who will teach you to do CF right, maximizing the benefits for your health and fitness while minimizing the risk of injury. We have a great CF community of like-minded folks who will be happy to welcome you and help and encourage you to reach your personal goals.

While CrossFit might turn out to be the most exhausting workout you've ever done, it is also undeniably highly effective. With dedication and consistency, you'll soon be in the best shape of your life.

Cole Learn - CrossFit Head Coach

There’s no question that CrossFit will get you into the best shape of your life, but as with all forms of training there’s a right and wrong way to go about it.

At Topp Performance, we’re proud to have Cole Learn as our head CrossFit Coach. In addition to being a lifelong fitness enthusiast with experience in many forms of training, Cole has won multiple CF competitions. His certifications include CrossFit Level 1, CrossFit Level 2 and Certified Personal Trainer.

Whether you’re just starting out or wanting to take your game to the next level, Cole and his team have the experience to get you to your goals. Come in and tour our newly renovated facilities, meet Cole, and see for yourself how we can help you to achieve Topp Performance!

CrossFit Head Coach Cole Learn

World-Class Fitness in 100 Words

"Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: deadlift, clean, squat, presses, clean and jerk, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climbs, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports."